DIY Wasp Control
Almost everywhere you go around Bryan, Texas you find wasps. Around your home, you can help keep wasp populations under control by employing DIY projects that are both safe and effective. Read on to learn more.
Wasps Are Scavengers And Predators
Food collection is the big drive behind yellowjackets and hornets. They will happily make a meal out of pet food, garbage scraps, recycling scraps and they are especially fond of sugar and meat. Focus on reducing the availability of scavenged food around your house and in so doing you will help reduce the number of wasps you see.
Focus on:
- Keeping garbage cans clean and only place objects in your garbage that are in tightly sealed bags.
- Move the garbage and recycling away from your home so that if either attracts wasps, they are not near your home. Yes, it is a little extra work to take out the garbage and recycling, but it pays off.
- Never leave outdoor pet food around after your pets have eaten. Always clean it up and dispose of it before the wasps find it. They love cat and dog food, even dried.
- Yellowjackets and hornets need paper or wood fibers to build nests. Make sure that cardboard and newspapers are securely in your recycling rather than sitting around.
DIY Wasp Traps
Never approach a wasp nest, even with those long-distance spray insecticides. There is a high chance you will be stung.
Instead, use a wasp trap. The best kind is one you can make at home and that is deadly to wasp. To make this all you need are five ingredients:
- A gallon sized empty water bottle – clear. Save the cap.
- About two feet of string
- Three cups of water
- One or two drops of dish soap
- A chicken left over chicken thigh bone or other meaty bone that will fit through the opening of the water bottle.
To make:
- Add the water to the water bottle.
- Add the dish soap. What the dish soap does is it reduces the water tension so that the wasps sink rather than float. Wasps are very capable of walking on water.
- Tie one end of the string around the chicken bone and then place the chicken bone into the water bottle without it getting wet.
- Wrap the remaining string around the neck of the water bottle so that the chicken bone is suspended about an inch above the water. Once that is done, you have just one step left.
- Place the wasp trap outside and in the area where you’ve seen wasps. A good spot is next to where you feed outdoor pets.
Leave the trap in place for a day and then check on it. It should have a bunch of dead wasps in the bottom of it. When you check on it put the water bottle cap on and make sure that there are no living wasps inside the bottle. If there are just come back in about an hour and they should all be dead.
You can remove the chicken bone, discard it, empty the water and dead wasps, and then reuse the trap by adding more water and another chicken bone.
What you are doing is controlling the number of wasps around your property. If you have a wasp infestation, you should call one of our professionals to remove the nest. DIY traps work well to keep the number of wasps down, but they will not work to destroy a wasp colony. For that, you need a pest control specialist.
